I took a short but lovely comms off vacation to see my dear friends Andrea and Mehrzad in Ottawa. Having left my phone turned off in a box at home along with the token I need to login to GMail and pretty much all other online services was de-stressing and liberating, though I spent most of the weekend playing with their funny dogs and their extreme cute tornado-haired baby.
The one significant block of time I spent alone was a 15 km walk past familiar Ottawa sights: the Chaudière falls with their newly expanded hydroelectric facility; the TLC complex with its new cages to protect people from falling brick fragments; my old favourite depanneur in Gatineau; the Alexandra bridge; official buildings along Sussex Avenue; a circumnavigation of the Rideau Hall grounds; and then a walk back west past the University of Ottawa.
As ever my friends were exceptionally kind to me, plying me with excellent food and sharing the amusing company of their young son, who I learned enjoys having me jump beside him and make velociraptor snarling noises.
